YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - What's old is new once again - or at least, it will be when Noble Creature Cask House opens later this year in Youngstown. 

An old building and old school brewing techniques highlight the latest addition to the craft beer scene in the Valley.

At the moment, though, it still very much looks like a construction zone, but it still represents a dream for Ira and Marcy Gerhart.

"I really got into craft beer and started home brewing in 2010," said Ira. "I was pretty much hooked after that. At that point, I knew I wanted to own a brewery, open a brewery and just do that forever."

"We've been talking about it since I was in college at YSU," said Marcy. "We would walk around town and be like, oh that's a cool building. We could do something there."

But it still took a leap of faith when they settled on an old church. They've spent most of this year transforming the former Butler Memorial Presbyterian Church built in 1923 in Youngstown into Noble Creature Cask House.

"It's been fun. It's been rough on the back at times," said Ira. "It's been a lot of work to get it ready to make beer, but we're getting there."

Even today, if you drive past the building it still looks very much like an old church. And they intend to keep it that way too, preserving the stained glass, re-purposing the pews, and staying true to the character of the building.

"It was actually all oak flooring on top of old rough-cut 4x4s, which we actually saved, we're going to use up in the bar for tables and beams up there," said Ira.

"It's kind of neat to give it a new vibe but keep the old elements," said Marcy.

As much as the building stands out, so will the beer. They plan to feature a lot of variety, a lot of wine barrels, and some old-school techniques.

"Nowadays, when people hear cask house they think of old English ales, cask-style ales that are served 50 degrees with very little carbonation. We're going to try and do one or two of those, but mainly the cask for us is the old wine casks," said Ira. "For these barrels, these are American Oak red wine barrels and we have some French oak Chardonnay barrels coming in too. It depends on how long the wine was aged in them."

Girard's James Sforza is a certified beer expert, an advanced Cicerone, and he says when this place opens later this summer it could open a lot of eyes to the local beer industry.

"Not only is it going to attract the absolute hardest of hardcore beer geeks in the area, but it's also going to with their connections in this area. It's going to open people's minds up a lot to the expansive craft beer scene," said Sforza. 

A beer scene with a Noble Creature and a Holy spirit.

The Gerharts plan to open Noble Creature Cask House this September, offering a variety of beer along with some food items as well.